Homeless Children Education

The Worcester Public Schools complies with all requirements of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (Subtitle B - Education for Homeless Children and Youth), reauthorized in January 2002. When a family is enrolling a student or students in school or changing an address, but is unable to provide the usual form of address verification, or it is sharing housing with others or is temporarily sheltered in some other alternative arrangement, the family member will be asked to verify the current living situation on the Student Address Verification Form so as to determine whether the student(s) is/are eligible under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act for required supplementary supportive services and legally-mandated exemptions from certain enrollment requirements. In keeping with these requirements:

Children who become homeless have the right to continue attending their school of origin, or enroll in the school of the district in which they are residing.

To the extent feasible, transportation will be provided for students in order to maintain continuity of their attendance in a single school over the course of the school year.

When a student is residing outside of the city due to circumstances related to homelessness (in accordance with the statutory definition of "homeless") efforts will be coordinated with the district where the student is temporarily residing to provide transportation to the school of origin if this is the preference of the parent and student.

The parents of a homeless child have the right to decide which one of two schools their child will attend. The options are:

the school in which the child was last enrolled, assuming transportation arrangements are feasible and are in the best interest of the student, or

the school in the district in which the child is temporarily living.

Women living in battered women's shelters can give school officials the Post Office Box or mailing address of the shelter office, along with verification from the shelter director that the children are residing in that facility in lieu of the street address. Transportation arrangements will be made in a manner that seeks not to disclose such shelter addresses.

Questions or concerns regarding issues pertaining to homeless students should be referred to the WPS homeless Liaison, Bertha Elena Rojas, at (508) 799-3175.

School Information

Instructional Focus

One hundred percent of our students will show improvement in Reading as demonstrated by the administration of MCAS. In 2014, we will increase our gap-narrowing CPI points in all student categories by 3 points in ELA. To accomplish this goal, we will:

Reduce the amount of students in Needs Improvement for all subgroups by 5%

Increase the amount of students in advanced in all subgroup categories by 3%

The Worcester Public Schools is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer/Educational Institution and does not discriminate regardless of race, color, gender, age, religion, national origin, gender identity, marital status, sexual orientation, disability or homelessness. The Worcester Public Schools provides equal access to employment and the full range of general, occupational and vocational education programs. For more information relating to Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action contact the Human Resource Manager, 20 Irving Street, Worcester, MA 01609, 508-799-3020. The Worcester Public Schools is continually working to provide a website that is ADA compliant. If you find an item that is not ADA compliant, please emailwebmaster@worc.k12.ma.us